Goodbyes
by Ashrial
Summary: Tenten stands at the grave of her father, Neji keeping silent vigil next to her.


Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

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Wind howls, snow falls, and Tenten find herself still standing in front of his grave.

The other visitors have come and gone, offering their hollow condolences in lowered voices. Lee and Gai stayed longer than most, but in the end they left to, driven off by the biting cold that still swirls around her. Tenten can barely feel it.

Looking down at her father's grave, she can't summon a particularly good reason to move. She hasn't for the better part of the night. The figure keeping silent vigil next to her has been there almost as long.

She doesn't need to turn her head to know the expression that will be on Neji's face. It's never broken in all the time she's known him, not even when he'd told them how he'd lost his father.

Lost his father…

She turns back to her father's grave, the ache in her chest that had been held at bay for a few moments returning with a vengeance, the deep ache that tells her that she'll never see her father again. Never hear his laughter as he recites one of his painfully unfunny jokes, never taste his horrible cooking again, never feel his arms around her, never see his face… Never say goodbye. The last time she'd seen him he'd still been very much alive, limping to the door to wave goodbye, dirt and oil smudged across the tip of his nose, the scar starting at the side of his mouth drawing his face into its perpetual lopsided grin.

Earlier she might have cried at the memory. Now she can't even muster a single tear.

She can still feel the emptiness that she'd felt when she'd walked into her fathers house. Felt the sense of wrongness as she'd said hello, hear it echo back, the plummeting of her stomach as the doctors had told her gently, in mock concerned voices that her father was dead. That she was alone in the world, never… never…

The wind blowing through her hair feels almost like how her father had used to stroke her hair when she was very little. He would sit back in his chair while she chatted about how her day had gone, a contented half smile on his face, his lank brown hair falling over his eyes.

Tenten shakes her head, the image dissipating.

Her father would have hated to see her like this; he had always said that life was to damned short to stand moping around about what you didn't have. He'd always said how he liked to see her smile.

Tentatively, a smile rises to her lips, almost painful in its insincerity. She drops it.

She shifts and glances at Neji. He hasn't moved since the last time she looked. In the light cast by the half moon with the snow and wind whirling around him, he looks almost like a statue. Cold. Unmoving. Eternal.

She shivers; a movement that has nothing to do with the cold.

Her father had always said you had to look forward. A glance to her side serves as more than enough warning of what will happen if she doesn't.

Her legs are stiff, and her feet feel like lumps of ice as she walks forward and rests a hand on the top of her father's tombstone. The rough stone rasps against her palm, and she bows her head, the ache of loss in her chest echoing inside her._ Live while your alive kid, cause that's all you got._

Her lips are frozen and rough, and her voice doesn't seem to be working right. She swallows back the lump in her throat and tries again, tries to say the words she knows she needs to hear.

"Goodbye."

His face blurs in her mind as tears prick her eyes, forcing their way out to trickle down her face. Closing her eyes, she lets them, a kind of silent solace.

Time passes and the tears stop, running dry. Lifting her head Tenten wipes the tears from her cheek and stands up, knees creaking, nearly frozen. She leans back her head and lets the snow fall. Her eyes drift close, and she can almost hear the echo of her words if she listens hard enough. _Goodbye_. _Goodbye_. _Goodbye_.

She opens her eyes and the world snaps back into being, the sky blanketed in darkness, but still there. Still there.

She draws her coat closer around and turns toward Neji, "Want to go for ramen?"

Neji surveys her for a moment. She already knows what his answer will be. It is always the same. God knows she's asked him enough times.

He shakes his head, turning back to the grave.

She nods.

Walking to the cemetery gate, winding her way through the graves, her pace is sedated. The ache in her chest is gone, replaced with an almost hollow feeling. She can't bring herself to worry about it. It'll either go away, or it won't.

Reaching the gate she pauses for a moment to glance back at Neji. He's still standing in front of the grave. His lips move in speech, the words lost in the wind.

His hand passes over the tombstone for a brief moment as he walks over to where she's standing, cutting a path through the tombstones. Reaching her, he offers her his arm, "Ramen?"

She looks at him for a moment. His face hasn't changed. The same hard lines dominate it, the same violet pupiless eyes stare down at her.

They stand in silence for a moment, snow speckling his outstretched arm.

Linking her arm through his, she resumes walking toward the gate. Konoha's twinkling lights come in to view, and she hugs herself closer to Neji as she smiles. It's a small, almost sad affair. But its there.

The wind howls, carrying a voice back to her.

"_Goodbye."_


End file.
